Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Sanford's FOIA Cost Dwarfed

You may recall Queen Laurin getting all hot and bothered a few weeks back when it was revealed that Gov. Mark Sanford's office set a $31,000 price tag on a wide-ranging Democratic Party Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Well Laurin, you ain't seen nothing yet.

According to documents obtained exclusively by FITS, Sanford's $31,000 price tag is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the $434,250 the South Carolina Worker's Compensation Commission recently cited in responding to a FOIA request by the South Carolina Civil Justice Coalition, a pro-Worker's Comp Reform group.

You read that right. $434,250.

And here's the best part: That astronomical price tag doesn't even include the 25-cent per page printing costs!

Furthermore, the FOIA reply - written by Workers' Compensation Commission Executive Director Gary Thibault - only addresses one of the four categories of documents being sought by the Coalition.

Great Googily Moogily ... those are probably the words you were looking for.

Or perhaps "There stands Thibault, standing like a Stone Wall ..."

Look for advocates of Workers' Compensation Reform (and open government, for that matter) to have a field day with this one, and look for Team Sanford to take full advantage of the fact that its recent FOIA response looks perfectly rational by comparison.